Letters to the Land of the Rising Sun
by bookgirl18
Summary: When Himuro's grad students first discovered the tablets, broken, but mostly intact, he was excited, as any archaeologist and history professor would be. He had no idea what he was going to discover, and how it would effect his family.


**I do not own Red River. I am writing this to give Yuri, and her family, some closure as to her disappearance.**

When one of my grad students first discovered the tablets, broken, but mostly intact, I was excited, as any archaeologist and history professor would be. I looked forward to finding out what it would say, having another project to collaborate on with my wife, Eimi, and wondering what it would reveal about life in the Hittite Empire.

Taking a quick glance at the cuneiform, it appeared to be a tablet, encased partially in a clay outer shell. Thankfully, there was a seal, of the Tawananna of Mursili II, Istar-dignir, Queen of the Hittite Empire, symbolizing the author of the letter, and an row of characters, where the receiver's symbol would usually reside. Taking a spare piece of paper, and using what little knowledge of cuneiform I had, I translated the symbols, growing more confused as to the meaning, and the contents of the letter.

When I looked at the seal, I could clearly read 'Tawananna, Mursili, and goddess Ishtar, but there were a collection of phonetic symbols in front of the symbol 'Istar'. The first part appeared to be something like 'Ri', with an unrecongizable symbol in front of it, and Ishtar seemed to be the second part of Mursili's wife's name.

The receiver of the letter was no person or government, but a phrase, part of which he had never seen before. The first part clearly stated, 'hassatar-mu, up-udne', meaning 'to my family', and then there was, 'udne' meaning 'land', with the prefix 'up-', meaning 'to raise the sun'.

Why was the Tawananna writing a letter that would not be sent? Why not use the correct seal, if writing to her family, and what was this about, the land of the rising sun?

Taking a risk, I carefully broke the outer shell, after taking a picture, doing a rubbing and creating a mold of -Ri Istar's seal. To say that I was astounded was an understatement.

It appeared to be a letter to the Tawananna's family, from her homeland. It gave her status as a Queen, and then, there were more phonetic symbols, and what appeared to be Japanese characters, this time, giving out the sounds 'Su-zu-ki ?-Ri, and the symbol for female personal name, and then what appeared to 'Suzuki Yuri'.

It seemed like she was giving her name as ?-Ri Istar, and her previous name as 'Su-zu-ki ?-Ri'. Wherever she was from put family names first, as opposed to individual names first, and then family names. Wait, this is very odd. The phonetic spelling of her name, and then the illogical placement of Japanese characters? This had to be a really bad prank. The characters read Suzuki Yuri.

There was some more characters in cuneiform, ones beyond my basic understanding, and then a few more I recognized.

Then, there was another group of phonetic symbols, sounding Sa-to-si Hi-mu-ru, ending in the symbol for 'male, personal name,' and then more Japanese characters, reading my name.

I knew I had to call in Eimi, but what to say? I figured it would be best to tell the truth. I had found a collection of mostly complete tablets, and needed her expertise understanding them. She was a linguist, who specialized in cuneiform.

It was the fact that this letter was buried in the same site as the Kikkuri records, in the floor of the Emperor's bedchamber that made me believe that the tablet was real. I watched my students take it out of the ground. They couldn't have created a tablet like this in a few seconds, and they didn't know anything about Yuri. It was that, and the fact that both our names were on it that had me convinced that this wasn't a prank.

This sounds absolutely insane. How could Yuri wind up in the Ancient Hittite Empire, and as it's Tawananna, no less? Getting up, I saw that there were twenty-nine tablets, and what appeared to be a few others, fragmented in pieces. One tablet had images, a man and a woman, of the same size, and then three males and one female, of the same size as well. There was writing on the back, more that I couldn't read, and a few I could. Ur-ri and Mursili, again.

I must have had too much coffee, and the guilt finally drove me insane. What other explanation would suffice, as I was seeing my name, and the name of my girlfriend, who disappeared almost twenty years ago, on a letter from an ancient Queen? It was absolutely absurd. I was hallucinating, and I was reading what I wanted to see, to know that I wasn't to blame for Yuri's disappearance. But, how could I say that? I was the last one to see her alive.

I needed to take this to Eimi. She would know what to do. My decision made, I called my wife, bracing myself for the conversation that I knew would take a bad turn.

"Hey, Eimi, you won't believe what happened! I found what appears to be a letter of a Tawananna! Would you like me to bring it to you?... Okay, I will., ... Have you made dinner plans yet? I found a restaurant I think you'd like..."


End file.
